Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (8 November 1901-19 March 1965) was the first communist leader of Romania from 1947 to 1965 as the General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party. He served as General Secretary of the PCR from 1944 to 1954 and from 1955 to 1965 (succeeding Stefan Foris and preceding Nicolae Ceausescu, with Gheorghe Apostol interrupting), and as Prime Minister of Romania from 2 June 1952 to 2 October 1955 (succeeding Petru Groza and preceding Chivu Stoica).

Biography
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej was born in Birlad, Moldavia, Romania on 8 November 1901, and he worked as an electriain on the railways before becoming involved with trade union and political activity. He joined the Romanian Communist Party in 1930, and he was sent to prison for his role in a 1932 railway strike. While in prison, he created a close-knit group of communist leaders, which included the young Nicolae Ceausescu. After the Soviet takeover he was released and accepted as leader. With Soviet help, he worked until 1948 to establish Romania as a communist state. Thereafter, in a second phase of his leadership he consolidated his own position and authority within the party. Carrying out Stalinist purges with gusto, he gradually dismantled all internal opposition within the party. This led to the creation of an unusually personalized regime, in which important posts were filled by loyal proteges. In a final phase of his leadership, he successfully created greater distance from the Communist leadership in Moscow. This was done through skillful exploitations of the internal divisions that had opened up between Yugoslavia, Albania, and China on the one hand, and the other Comecon states, on the other. He died in office in 1965.